🇭🇰 Hong Kong

Overview

AiPrise verifies Hong Kong businesses against the Hong Kong Companies Registry (ICRIS). A business verification returns the company profile, directors and shareholders, and a list of the documents filed with the Companies Registry, which you can order.

Coverage

Data point	Returned	Note
Company profile	Yes	Legal name in English and Chinese, legal form, status, incorporation date, registered address
Directors	Yes	Returned for about 9 in 10 companies
Shareholders	Yes	Returned for about 8 in 10 companies
Ultimate beneficial owners	No	The significant controllers register is not public

Document	Returned
Company profile	Yes, on request
Certificate of incorporation	Yes, on request
Articles of association	Yes, on request
Annual returns	Yes, on request
Financial statements	Yes, on request, when filed
UBO extract	No

The verification lists every document the company has filed. You then order the ones you need.

Documents, as the register names them

Annual Return (NAR1, older returns AR1)
Certificate of Incorporation and Certificate of Change of Name
Articles of Association (older companies: Memorandum and Articles of Association)
Incorporation Form (NNC1)
Notice of Change of Company Secretary and Director (ND2A) and other notices of change
Notice of Change of Address of Registered Office (NR1)
Return of Allotment
Mortgage and charge filings

Speed

Step	Typical	9 in 10 within
Business verification (company data, directors, shareholders, document list)	14 seconds	18 seconds
Ordered document	18 seconds	19 seconds

These are typical times from production, not a service-level commitment: set timeouts well above them, or use callbacks.

Company types

Every company in the Companies Registry is covered. Sole proprietorships and partnerships found by their business registration number are covered with less data.

Company type	Legal forms	Covered	What to expect
Private company	Private company limited by shares	Yes	Full data: directors, shareholders, documents
Public company	Public company limited by shares	Yes	Profile, directors, documents; shareholders for some companies
Guarantee company	Company limited by guarantee	Yes	Profile, directors, documents; no shareholders
Foreign company	Registered non-Hong Kong company	Yes	Profile, directors, documents; no shareholders
Limited partnership	Limited partnership	Yes	Profile only
Sole proprietorship	Business registration only	Yes	Profile only; no status, directors or shareholders
Partnership	Business registration only	Yes	Profile only; no status, directors or shareholders

Sources

Register	What it gives
Companies Registry (ICRIS)	Company profile, directors, shareholders, filed documents

Identifiers

Send the company number as business_entity_id, with country_code set to HK.

Identifier	Format	Example
Company Registration (CR) number	7 or 8 digits	`1234567` or `12345678`
Business Registration (BR) number	8 digits, with an optional 3-digit branch suffix. Without a suffix, `-000` (head office) is added.	`12345678` or `12345678-000`

You can also search by legal name.

Statuses and legal forms

Every result carries the register's own status in registration_info.status and an AiPrise status in registration_info.normalised_status. The normalised status is one of Active, Suspended, Dormant, Dissolved / Struck Off, In Liquidation / Insolvency or Unknown.

Register status	Normalised status
Live	Active
Live, Commenced dormancy on (date)	Active
Live, Ceased dormancy on (date)	Active
Dissolved	Dissolved / Struck Off
Ceased place of business	Dissolved / Struck Off
(empty)	Unknown

Legal forms come back as the register writes them in entity_type, for example Private company limited by shares, Company limited by guarantee and Registered non-Hong Kong company. Business registrations show INDIVIDUAL, PARTNERSHIP or BODY CORPORATE.

Quirks and gotchas

Country-specific behaviour to know before you integrate.

Quirk	Details
Business registrations have no status	A result found by BR number with a branch suffix (`12345678-000`) is a business registration. About 1 in 35 results are like this: sole proprietors (`INDIVIDUAL`), partnerships or body corporates. They come back without a register status (normalised `Unknown`) and without directors or shareholders.
Dormant companies are Active	A company that commenced dormancy keeps the status `Live, Commenced dormancy on (date)`, which normalises to `Active`. Read the raw status if dormancy matters to you.
Documents are a list first	The verification lists the filed documents. Each document is ordered separately and arrives in about 20 seconds.
Same person, two roles	A person who is both a director and a shareholder comes back once, with both roles.

Limits

The significant controllers register is not public, so UBOs are not returned.
Private companies do not file accounts with the Companies Registry, so financial statements are only available for the companies that file them.